


Late Night Conversations About Love, Midterms, and Antediluvian Vampire Cults

by rachelisnotcool



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: Pie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-08
Updated: 2014-11-08
Packaged: 2018-02-24 13:57:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2583821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rachelisnotcool/pseuds/rachelisnotcool
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Perry and Danny run into each other in the caf and talk about life. Takes place during episode 26.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Late Night Conversations About Love, Midterms, and Antediluvian Vampire Cults

When Perry leaves Laura’s room, she finds her feet taking her, inexplicably, to the cafeteria. Su- LaFontaine had always warned everyone against it (have you _seen_ the Alchemy Club? They’re in cahoots with the lunch ladies, meaning I’m not eating there), and usually, she was inclined to agree with them. Perhaps it was anger or frustration or some bizarre, innate desire to rebel, Perry had no idea. What she does know was that she's somehow managed to find herself in the cafeteria at 11 PM, crying into an apple pie.

 

To be entirely fair, she’s fairly inconspicuous, even with the way her breaths come in short, desperate gasps and her hands shake as she stuffs her face. It’s midterms. Late night crying is normal. Even the lunch ladies haven't looked up from their rather intense game of Scrabble, which they’re squabbling over in a language Perry suspects to be long dead.

 

In fact, she’s considering walking back to her dorm (with her eyes trained on the side of the hallway LaFontaine doesn’t live in) when the bell to the cafeteria chimes. The lunch ladies look up briefly from their game, but evidently decide that whoever has just entered is not particularly interesting.

 

Perry doesn’t care either, not really, but anything is a welcome distraction. As devoted as she is to finding out how much she can eat without passing out or dying or both, she does want to think about something other than pie or LaFontaine. She’s midway through her casual, offhand glance when she stops short.

 

Danny has entered the caf.

 

Danny has seemingly not noticed her. She’s looking through her backpack, clearly fishing for something. Perry wrinkles her nose briefly at her disorganization before returning to her brooding (well, it seemed to work for Carmilla), watching Danny out of the corner of her eye.

 

Finally, after what seems like an eternity of discomfort and not-so-subtle side eyeing from the lunch ladies, Danny finally finds what she’s been looking for: a euro. Smiling a smile that does not quite reach her eyes, she presses it into the hand of one of the lunch ladies, who’s kind enough to get up from her game (as she tells Danny), and select a pie from the stack.

 

She pulls out her phone and is halfway through selecting a table to sit at when she spots Perry. Perry glances back at her at precisely the wrong time, and both girls are forced to acknowledge each other’s presences. Perry tries to recall a time when the two of them had had a conversation longer than a few words, but finds that she can’t remember one. So, forcing a smile, she beckons Danny over, praying to God or Zeus or whoever else might be listening that Danny chooses a different seat.

 

The gods must really enjoy her misfortune tonight, because Danny nods briefly and then sits across from Perry, cutting right into her sulking time.

 

“Hi,” Danny says, and Perry smiles at her.

 

“Hello,” she says, though it sounds forced to even to her ears. Danny smiles back as well, though it’s a smile that looks more like a grimace than anything.

 

“So,” Danny begins, “how are you?”

 

It’s an innocent enough question, and one that would naturally follow the awkwardness of not really knowing each other. Perry knows the response. She knows that she’s supposed to tell Danny that everything is fine, thank you very much, how are you, but the words stick in her throat and she finds that she can't force them. Instead, tears begin to fall from her eyes, landing in her pie, hot and wet like the first time LaFontaine had kissed her...

 

“Oh, god. God, I’m so sorry. I’m such an idiot. Are you okay?” Danny says. Perry tries to wipe away the tears and assure her that it isn't her fault, but more come, and it doesn’t work anyway, so she just ends up staring helplessly at Danny, hiccoughing.

 

“I’m fine,” she says, and Danny raises an eyebrow.

 

“Doesn’t seem like it.”

 

“You’re one to talk,” Perry snaps back, before realizing that she's Lola Perry and that she does not _snap_. She sees Danny deflating and is overcome with the strange desire to give her a hug, though she wonders if she’d even come up past her chest.

 

“I’m fine,” Danny says, but her cheeks tinge red. She looks around uncomfortably, stopping on her untouched cherry pie.

 

“You threw yourself at a giant mushroom,” Perry says bluntly.

 

“I was protecting the student body.”

 

“Nobody was within twenty feet of it.”

 

“I was pre-protecting it.”

 

The Perry of a few hours ago would’ve nodded, would’ve pretended to buy Danny’s story, would probably not be talking to Danny at all, but the Perry of a few hours ago isn’t here right now.

 

“Right,” is all she says. Danny sighs and sinks lower into her chair.

 

“This sucks,” Danny says, and Perry is inclined to agree. Caught in the midst of a death trap of a university, midway through midterms, and both without their respective... somethings, Perry and Danny have a shared bond of general suck.

 

“I miss LaFontaine,” Perry says quietly.

 

“I hear you,” Danny says, and takes a bite of her pie. They sit like that for a while, both lost in memories and nostalgia, before Danny speaks again.

 

“This isn’t really what I was hoping for this year,” she says. Perry laughs, even though Perry never laughs, because it’s so true. Perry shakes her head.

 

“The wrecking ball that is Laura Hollis,” she says, shrugging her shoulders, and Danny laughs too.

 

“More the wrecking ball that is Silas U, but I see your point. Anybody ballsy enough to march right into a sporadically existing evil library of death with a frying pan has got to be a little bit of a wrecking ball.”

 

“So you watch the videos too,” says Perry.

 

“Keeping my distance. Watching her fall in love with, well, Carmilla.”

 

Perry doesn’t say anything.

 

“And I’d be lying if I said it didn’t piss me off a little, you know? Because it does, and sometimes I want to be her, just to be the person Laura wants to be with. And I know it's dumb and she just needs space but I can't stop thinking about all the ways she could get herself killed.”

 

“Well, we can form a band,” Perry says, and Danny snorts. “The Sensible Overprotectives.”

 

“With the hit single, “Don’t Go to the Library At Night.””

 

“Under the record label “My School is Trying to Kill Me.””

 

Danny and Perry smile at each other for a minute before Danny finally addresses the elephant in the room (or the caf, rather).

 

“So, what happened?” she asks softly, and bizarrely, Perry wants to tell her, so she does. She explains the whole story, everything that’s happened since LaFontaine first asked to be called LaF, and Danny listens attentively. She’s a surprisingly good listener, Perry finds, and she finds that there are a lot of things she doesn’t know about Danny Lawrence, things to be learned when they’re not in the middle of a war.

 

“I think you should apologize,” Danny says, when she’s finally exhausted herself. Perry nods. She thinks she will, too, and she’ll really, really try with the name thing.

 

“I’ll do it now,” she starts to say, but Danny chuckles.

 

“It’s 1 AM, Perry. They’re probably asleep.”

 

Perry knows she’s right, and remembers that she should probably go to her own dorm.

 

“And if you need a place to crash, our couch is open,” Danny continues.

 

“Thanks,” Perry says, and she finds herself bizarrely considering the offer. “But someone on my floor might need me.”

 

Danny nods like she understands and starts to reach behind her for her backpack.

 

“Thanks,” she says to Perry, and then she’s out the door.

 

Perry finds that she feels a little better.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know why I wanted to throw these two characters together, but I'm glad I did.


End file.
